As leverage rises, Flacco doesn’t care

Throughout the 2012 regular season, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco wasn’t pushing for a new contract, but he wouldn’t have complained if the team wanted to do a deal.

They didn’t.

Now, if the Ravens decide that Flacco’s performance to date in the postseason justifies working out an extension before his leverage potentially skyrockets with a Super Bowl appearance and/or an NFL championship, Flacco isn’t interested.

“Joe has never been more focused and less interested in his contract than right now,” Flacco’s agent, Joe Linta, tells PFT via email. Linta added that there’s “[p]lenty of time after the season” to talk contract.

When that time comes, Linta apparently plans to drive a hard bargain. “If you don’t think that’s an elite guy, then you’re crazy,” Linta told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network earlier today. “He’s a top five guy, if not better.”

Actually, Flacco’s increasing leverage won’t matter much. Even if the Ravens had lost last Sunday to the Colts, Flacco was destined to receive the franchise tag. The real question is whether the Ravens would have been willing to regard that one-year, $14.6 million contract as the launching point for talks on a long-term deal.

117 responses to “As leverage rises, Flacco doesn’t care”

Say what you want about Joe. Not many QB’s make that throw to tie it up yesterday. Is he in the top super-tier? Not sure. But he’s in the top 10 in the league, no question, with potential to be top 3 in a few years.

Third AFC Championship appearance and has never missed the playoffs. He’s part of a winning formula. He’s getting paid. I think if we win the Super Bowl Reed will retire or harbaugh could choose to move on from him regardless. Either way I don’t see us using the tag next season.

Top 5 guy? Brady, Rodgers, Manning, Brees. That would be the top 4. Is Joe Flacco really the next guy up? I have a hard time buying that. As bad of a season as he had this year, I’ll take Eli over Flacco. I’ll take Big Ben over Flacco. I might take Phillip Rivers over Flacco. I’ll take Jay Cutler over Flacco. I’ll take Andrew Luck over Flacco. I’ll take Matt Ryan over Flacco. I’ll take a healthy RG3 over Flacco. I’ll take Cam over Flacco. Heck, I’ll take Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick over Flacco. That puts Flacco somewhere around 11-15 on my list depending on whether or not I left anyone out.

I can not begin to tell you how much I despise the term “elite” when it comes to QBs.

Look, there’s a top-tier of QBs…Manning and Brady are all-time greats, Brees and Rodgers could be on their way.

After that, there’s a large group of NFL QBs that are pretty darn good. You’ve got up-and-comers like RG3, CKap, Stafford, Luck, Newton, and RWilson. Then you’ve got vets such as BigBen, Eli, Matt Ryan, and even Cutler and Romo.

Putting Flacco in the top-5 is a huge reach. You can’t argue that he’s a good QB that’s had a fair amount of post-season success. But I’m not sure that qualifies him as “elite.”

The Ravens will gladly pay Flacco the big money if he proves himself. He’s proving himself. A team desperate for a QB since moving from Cleveland knows what they have, and will not let him get away. They just needed to see it more than here and there so they weren’t paying a Ryan Fitzpatrick clone. Parting ways with Cam Cameron was more than enough of an indication that they want Joe to be their guy. My guess is he gets something in the 7 year/ 110 million neighborhood.

Of course they’re not getting into contract talks now. No team would distract their franchise quarterback with contract talks the week before a championship game. But no matter how things go for the Ravens from this point forward, Joe’s going to be sitting pretty in the off season. Even if he weren’t a top-notch quarterback (and he is), where else could the Ravens turn? No great QB talents are coming out this year, and Ozzie’s way too smart to go bargain basement shopping.

Third AFC Championship appearance and has never missed the playoffs. He’s part of a winning formula. He’s getting paid. I think if we win the Super Bowl Reed will retire or harbaugh could choose to move on from him regardless. Either way I don’t see us using the tag next season.

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He’s never missed any game either. Nobody ever mentions his durability.

As a Raven fan I’ve seen flacco’s development achieve a level no other quarterback has seen in their first five years. The saga continues and Baltimore won’t stop until Flacco Rice and Lewis hoist the lambardi. Get use to it doubters.

Pats fiend said
Say what you want about Joe. Not many QB’s make that throw to tie it up yesterday. Is he in the top super-tier? Not sure. But he’s in the top 10 in the league, no question, with potential to be top 3 in a few years…..

Anyone could throw that balloon floater, the safety blew the coverage on that play so badly he should have been escorted out of the stadium. That was a desperation pass that any other safety would have at least batted down let alone intercept it. Flacco is good, but gimme a break on that play,

I think it’s a great idea to pay a guy based on his winning a couple of postseason games.

Although, full disclosure….I’m a Patriots fan and am madly in love with the situation the Jets have gotten themselves into because Mark Sanchez happened to quarterback a couple teams that won a couple playoff games.

Pats fiend said
Say what you want about Joe. Not many QB’s make that throw to tie it up yesterday. Is he in the top super-tier? Not sure. But he’s in the top 10 in the league, no question, with potential to be top 3 in a few years…..

Anyone could throw that balloon floater, the safety blew the coverage on that play so badly he should have been escorted out of the stadium. That was a desperation pass that any other safety would have at least batted down let alone intercept it. Flacco is good, but gimme a break on that play,

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I hate agreeing with a Jets fan but I was actually surprised Jones didn’t drop that ball simply out of shock at how horribly the safety blew that one.

I’m not a Ravens fan, but I have no clue who Joe Flacco’s backup even is. The guy is getting a contract. Even if he’s only a top 15 guy, if you have a QB who is not actively losing games for you, you keep him. I usually only see Flacco in the playoffs and he’s better at the deep ball than most of the “elite” group. Hitting a guy in stride 50 yards down the field is a talent. Not sure how many of those miss during the regular season.

@rwmilli says “Haha ckap really? Just the mere fact that you guys listed him shows you clearly have NO knowledge of football. The kids played a few games as a starter and your All jumping on the bandwagon #smh”

Yes, CKap is better than Schaub. You do realize that Schaub was annihilated by the Green Bay Packers and “CKap” annihilated the Green Bay Packers, don’t you?

Top 5 QB sounds about right. He has proven it and this playoff season has proved it. Going on the road and winning in Denver where he had to deal with 2 return TD’s – I think he should be given a long contract to stay with the Ravens or he will not sign one if they just tag him.

As a Chicago Bears fan I was hoping the Bears grabbed him in the draft. I cant remember who they picked in his draft class but I think it would have been very possible for the Bears to move to get him fairly easy. I guess I can just blame Angelo on that one.

Ravens will resign him as soon as he reopens negotiations. The whole Caldwell project in week 15 was Bisciotti’s way of determining who the real culprit was, Joe or Cam. I think the answer is fairly obvious.

Flacco is just outside the Top 10 in my opinion, which obviously means nothing…but there’s no way you can say that CKap, Griffin, Luck, and Wilson are all better than Flacco….yet. They are in their first seasons as starters in the league. Give DC’s a year or 2 or film before you go crowning them. They’ve all had great success this year and seem to have bright futures, but it’s way too early to say they’re better than Flacco. I definitely don’t agree with his agent, but then again, his agent more than likely doesn’t truly believe what he said but he obviously shouldn’t say any different about his client who’s trying to get paid.

The Ravens would be crazy to think they can easily replace Flacco with a draft pick or free agent… almost as crazy as Flacco’s agent thinking he’s a top-5 QB. He’s not destined to the Hall of Fame, but he is certainly a QB they can build the team around without major concerns. He brings a good game. It’s not like Alex Smith who can suffice until someone with genuine talent arrives to show everyone what the team could have been doing. Put Manning into his slot and the team will do better. Put Kaepernick or Wilson or RGIII into his slot, and they will miss him.

This league has 4 elite QBs: Brady, Peyton, Brees, and Rodgers, follow by about 10 guys in the second tier with the potential to move up. Flacco is soundly in that group along with the Ryan’s, Stafford’s, and Eli’s of the world. They have their fair share of elite games but really, would you actually put Flacco right next to Tom Brady? You can be very good and not be elite. It’s not a knock on him but he’s not there.

here we go again. no matter the arguement one thing we all can agree on is the flacco deserves his money. Good QBs don’t grow on trees. i think baltimore is lucky to have flacco. what is out there that is available in the draft or free agency that is better? only a handful of QBs are better. as far as QBs in the game right now, not last year, not 5 years ago, right now that you would want over flacco. brady, rodgers, brees, peyton manning, flacco. i would argue flacco over peyton. but like i said he deserves his money. maybe you wait a year cause next season it truly will be his team and he will be the face of the franchise.

Peyton, Brees, and Rodgers do it with little to no help from their defense. Give Flacco a year or two without Ray Lewis, then we’ll talk about “elite.”
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I guess you haven’t been paying much attention this season. For the first 2/3 of the season, the Ravens defense was dreadful. It was the offense led by Flacco who kept things going. The Ravens D isn’t what it once was.

If you are putting RG3, luck , and Russsel wilson heck even cam newton over Flacco you know nothing about the QB position.
I think people get caught up watching sports center and see only there good plays they make. Its been one and relax

I’d love to see an independent, professional Football Evaluators QB Rankings. That I am not, but I agree Flacco is not even in the Top 10. And what qualifies as ‘Elite’ in a League with 32 Starters? Top 5? Top 3?

rwmilli “No way ! Ckap beat that inconsistent weak secondary greenbay packers defense? He’s so totally better than flacco what was I thinking.”

Wait a second, Flacco played that same “inconsistent weak secondary” that Green Bay has in 2011 and he lost 27-14. One of the Ravens touchdowns was a pick 6 and the other was a running touchdown. That means Flacco accounted for 0 touchdowns against that “inconsistent weak secondary”, while Colin Kaepernick threw 2 touchdowns directly on that “inconsistent weak secondary” and he ran past that “inconsistent weak secondary” for 2 more scores. I’ll take CKAP.

It all comes down to if Flacco can beat Brady on Sunday. If he can WIN against Brady then he deserves to be the highest paid QB in the NFL.
I’m a Raiders fan but I’m rooting for the Ravens to pull this out and win the Superbowl. I think Flacco gets a bad rap

Flacco has a 107-plus QBR in his past three years in the postseason. That’s the kind of quarterback I’d want on my team.

And for anyone who claims he is riding on the defense, look at Baltimore’s defensive rankings. If he remains healthy, the Skip Cluelesses of the world may never give him the “elite” tag (which to me is a silly discussion anyway). But, if Flacco consistently gets into the playoffs and wins a Super Bowl or two, he may be a HOF inductee when he wraps up his career – elite or not.

Ckap is just a younger version of Vick, as soon as one team figures out how to stop him everybody will stop him, Manning, Rodgers, Brady you cant stop them only slow them down, Flacco in my opinion slows himself down, he has the ability to be great but just can’t get over that hump, I would put Matt Ryan in the same group as Flacco, there that close to being great

No, no, no… his agent is right. Flacco is super duper mega elite, top 5 or better. In fact he may be the best QB to EVER play the game! He’s so great, there will have to be a new, separate top 5 created, ranked above the current one, where Flacco will occupy all 5 spots!

So don’t be afraid to blow the bank on him, Baltimore, use up half your cap money, and most of all, get him signed to a ten-year deal! Don’t let him get away! Keep Joe Flacco as the Ravens QB FOREVER!

If Flacco goes on the road in back to back games and beats Manning and then Brady I don’t care if he throws six picks in the super bowl, you pay him whatever it takes. He’s just now entering his best years and he has no top ten receiving talent around him, boldin? Smith? Pitta? Come on, Brady has Gronk, Hernandez, Welker, Lloyd and much much more. This is a no brainer and if it doesn’t work out for whatever reason nobody could blame the team, kind of like Fitzpatrick and the bills.

I’m sorry, but take away that running game and defense and the Ravens are average at best. Flacco is not what makes that team. He has a great arm, but other than throwing deep and watching his receivers make a play or dumping it off and watching Rice make a play… what else does he offer?

It doesn’t matter what you all think. It matters what oz and Steve b think he is worth. He is going nowhere. For the posers that say lets see him beat Brady, he has. This year and out played him in the AFCC last year. To compare rg or luck or Wilson against him is foolish. He is 7 – 4 in the playoffs. They are still in training wheels. He is much better than Schaub, much more durable than fragile Ben. He has probably the strongest arm in the league with stafford who still hasn’t won in the playoffs.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter a hill of beans where you all rank him . It matters where his owner ranks him. And Steve b has said that flacco is his qb foe the foreseeable future.

Finally, for the loon that said most of the nfl abs could have thrown the pass to jacoby jones. I want what you are smoking. He thre that ball from about the 20 to. The 20. It was in the air for 60 yards. Few abs in the nfl can throw that far with any accuracy

He is maybe and I said maybe Top 15..if you look at ProFootball Focus stats he is rated #20…so give him the Franchise amount..avg 15 m per year but no more….His agent needs to be drug tested for saying the guy is Top 5…maybe if he played in the CFL he would be Top 5.. I think though that Caldwells play calling has definitely helped him…he has averaged 300+ yards per game in the playoffs which is nice..and had some other big games this year….prior to that the guy has been so bland as a QB….maybe it was Cameron’s play calling and leadership..who knows but the guy is above average at best right now.

To add to that, how many guys would you take over Flacco going forward? Can’t take Brady and Manning, Flacco has ten years left, can take Brees and Rodgers, baby Manning perhaps and big Ben if you want to risk off field issues. Would you really take a proven winner in Flacco over Cam? Do you wanna win or see a good stat line? Def wouldn’t take cutler or rivers, good God. Rg3 and his bum knee, luck perhaps? Neither have done anything but are younger and more talented. When you add it all up there’s MAYBE five or six guys worth it. Flacco will be the new Jim Kelly, great player but somewhat over looked in his era, but Flacco still had a chance at a super bowl.

Of course his agent is going to exaggerate his ability. That’s what agents do.

He’s my QB and he’s knocking on the door to the top 10. He’s been markedly better since Cameron was fired and Caldwell, who has never been a playcaller before, took over. Matt Ryan missed throws today that Flacco makes before breakfast. There are 23 QBs who threw more interceptions than Flacco this season. Nobody completed more passes of 20+ yards. He outplayed PFM yesterday. He outplayed Brady earlier this year and in the AFCC last year, but people only remember the kick. He outplayed the other Manning last month. Outplayed Luck. Outplayed Griffin III. Look at the game logs. He’s not very exciting but dude gets the job done.

@jjh1982 says “Ckap is just a younger version of Vick, as soon as one team figures out how to stop him everybody will stop him, Manning, Rodgers, Brady you cant stop them only slow them down, Flacco in my opinion slows himself down, he has the ability to be great but just can’t get over that hump, I would put Matt Ryan in the same group as Flacco, there that close to being great.”

You forget. If Vick wasn’t arrested and imprisoned for 3 years, he would have been a top of the line quarterback. Is CKap dighting dogs? If you are aware of something like this, it is your duty to inform the rest of us. The year before Vick was arrested, he threw for 4500 yards. That is a rare number. When he came back to the league after 3 years out, he threw for a phenomenal amount and had a great year with Philly after having served 3 years time. I think CKap will do just fine, considering he won’t miss 3 years in his prime like Vick did.

I’ve watched every game the guy has played so far in his career. He’s never been hurt. He’s won a ton of games. He’s won BIG games. He’s performed under pressure in clutch situations. He’s outperformed nearly every “elite” QB in the league head to head at one point in time or another. Anyone that watched last year’s AFC title game knows that Joe played his ass off and wasn’t the reason that they lost by any stretch. I’m not exactly sure what else can be expected of him, other than a Superbowl and I suspect not even that will silence his critics.

Yall! can say what you want about Flacco? Top five this? Or top ten that? But guess what his team is still playing for the chance to play in the Superbowl!! The Ravens won’t let him get away!! P.S This is what I belive Ponder will become maybe even better! Pretty good for a game manager!!

Flacco is so much better than he used to be. Top 5? I dunno. Top 10? I dunno. He’s made the playoffs his first 5 years and third title game so he must be good. I know, I know, he has a good team around him but so do these other QBs.

Sorry Flacco is not elite and he is not a top 5. Maybe top 10 but that’s a maybe. I rank Qb’s like this: elite, franchise, above average, average and below average. Flacco is probably in there somwhere between franchise and above aveage righr now. Also, Kapernick is not a younger Vick. He passes much better then Vick ever did.

edgarpoe3:
I can assure you that Flacco does not — repeat — does not have a “107-plus QBR in his past three years in the postseason.”
The highest QBR that can be attained is 100. You obviously are confusing QBR with a passer rating. Two very different things…
An “elite” quarterback is a quarterback who presides over an offense that generally is called upon to carry its team to victory. Tom Brady, Drew Bress and Aaron Rodgers are perfect examples…
Then there are quarterbacks who play on teams that feature “elite” defenses.
Both Roethlisberger and Flacco have enjoyed great success due to their respective defenses allowing 20 or fewer points on a weekly basis.
Owning rings or piling up victories have nothing to do with being “elite.” The elitists throw TD passes, and plenty of them.

Joe Flacco is an excellent QB. If he wins a Super Bowl, he will be in the same company of Rogers, Manning, and Brees. QBs who won one Super Bowl. I don’t know if that would be considered elite, but it is good enough for me. Brady is the Joe Montana of this era, so far as elite and I hate the term, it is only he.

Flacco is better than people make him out to be but he’s no top five QB however he could end up being paid like he is. There are enough desperate teams out there that he can use as leverage. Besides, who would the Ravens get to replace him?

As for that throw, yeah nice TD, but lets face it, that should have been picked. The fact it wasn’t doesn’t somehow magically make the throw better. There are plenty of throws Joe has made that I would have picked as an example of his Deep ball accuracy. That wasn’t one of them.

Joe will get the franchise tag and Ravens will hope to secure the long term deal before the season starts. The cap implication of the $14 million salary hurts Ravens who are already up against the cap. Ray Lewis retirement frees up about 5 million cap dollars. As for Mr.Reed, thank you for the memories. But next year it is unlikely you are a raven. Suggestion – please hire an agent, you can’t continue to represent yourself.

A lot of people say Flacco has had a terrible yr. I assume they are making vague judgment based on a few games when he made bad Decisions. Fact is, he has surpassed his career high in yardage. Just 113 yards short of 4,000 and 22 TD’s. pretty good in my eyes. No he doesn’t throw for 35+ TD’s, like Brady, Bree’s and such…but the Ravens run a completely different offense. They rely more on the running game than those teams do. Flacco a top 5? I’m not sure. But he’s not far off

Hahahahaha……Really Joe Linta? You are what’s wrong with sports today…..3 or 4 good games don’t make a season… Flaccid is a top 10-15 guy but because there is a premium on QBs the bottom 15 will pay top $$$

As a steeler fan I once enjoyed facing General Joe, but not anymore he has matured. Rating labels mean squat trophies count more and he has gotten the rat birds close five years in a row. Wins a Super Bowl he becomes elite and the argument is over..ravens look like destiny s child and just may end Super Bowl drought

Peyton want’s Joe’s winning percentage in the playoffs. All Joe does is win more than any other qb in history through his 5th year in the league. Say what you will but 3 afc championships in 5 years and this year they got there on his arm PERIOD!

“crownofthehelmet says:
Jan 13, 2013 10:35 PM
A month removed from a 4th & 26 check down to turtle-up. How soon fans forget, but I think you’ll be treated to a typical 140 yard, 2 int game from Flacco to refresh your memories.”

rwmilli “No way ! Ckap beat that inconsistent weak secondary greenbay packers defense? He’s so totally better than flacco what was I thinking.”

Wait a second, Flacco played that same “inconsistent weak secondary” that Green Bay has in 2011 and he lost 27-14. One of the Ravens touchdowns was a pick 6 and the other was a running touchdown. That means Flacco accounted for 0 touchdowns against that “inconsistent weak secondary”, while Colin Kaepernick threw 2 touchdowns directly on that “inconsistent weak secondary” and he ran past that “inconsistent weak secondary” for 2 more scores. I’ll take CKAP.

I dont know what Ravens team you were watching last year…… but we didn’t play the Packers.

Joe outplayed Brady last year in the AFC title game. He outplayed him in Baltimore this year. He outdueled the Best ever in Manning. The bigger problem in our passing game has always been either the inability of the receivers to get seperation or the Vanilla schemes of Cam Cameron. If I can sit on my couch as an average NFL fan and call play after play so can the D coordinators in this league.

We suffered and suffered through terrible QB’s since the Ravens inception in ’96.. This guy has taken us to 3 AFC Championships and pretty much a Super Bowl but Lee Evans was getting paid by the mob. He’s a poised QB, has a cannon, and never gets flustered in critical situations living up to his alias “Joe Cool”. You’ll see Ed Reed gone and in another jersey (praying this doesn’t happen) before Joe.

so how is elite measured….is it stats or is it success. or is it value to your team. joe doesnt post so called elite stats. but he is not required to. however his last 3 playoff games he has been great. and at the end of the day team success is all that matters. 5 playoff appearances and 3 afc championship games is a record of success that pretty much any team in the league would take. its no super bowl but the story of this season isnt over. there will be no better qb available this year and how or why would the ravens even consider looking in another direction. top 5 top 10 top 15…its all subjective. go ravens

Remember Denver was the second ranked defense in the league. In two playoff games 5 TD’s 0 interceptions and a 120 quarterback rating. 7 playoff wins in 5 years. One dropped pass away from being in last year’s Super Bowl. The guy is a top 10 quarterback.

Kind of a different subject but, I have to shoot something out there. I remember hearing a couple of certain ESPN commentators saying that they weren’t sure that Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco were Franchise QB’s? ESPN, now what do you think? Flacco and the Ravens are one game away from the Superbowl, same goes for Matt Ryan, one game away. When will these guys accept that Flacco and Ryan ARE FRANCHISE QB’s?

I’m a Giants’ fan and think he’s almost identical to Eli. He plays ho-hum during the regular season and then turns it on in the playoffs. I’d MUCH rather have that quality in a QB than the guy who puts up 40 TDs in the regular season and does nothing in January (i.e. Romo, Stafford, Newton).

New England will be first common opponent Ravens have played pre-Cam/post-Cam. Ravens scored 31, had more than 500 yards of offense, and Flacco threw for 382 with 3 TDs and 1 INT and Rice rushed for 101 yards and 1 TD in first game this year vs. Patriots.

ESPN Total Quarterback Rating has Flacco at 25th this season. Just look it up. He’s been no where near top or elite, and is actually worth minus 6 points against the average NFL quarterback this yearn. That rating measures a lot more than aggregate passing yards where he’s more middle of the pack – even though his minions have delusions of him being top 5 there too. His long passing numbers are only average. In the playoffs so far, he is ranked third, so that’s a great improvement, but it’s only over two games, and the first playoff game he only had 12 completions, so it wasn’t an otherwordly performance, but it was good enough.

ESPN Total Quarterback Rating has Flacco at 25th this season. Just look it up. He’s been no where near top or elite, and is actually worth minus 6 points against the average NFL quarterback this yearn. That rating measures a lot more than aggregate passing yards where he’s more middle of the pack – even though his minions have delusions of him being top 5 there too. His long passing numbers are only average. In the playoffs so far, he is ranked third, so that’s a great improvement, but it’s only over two games, and the first playoff game he only had 12 completions, so it wasn’t an otherwordly performance, but it was good enough.

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I don’t think he’s top 5 but he sure as hell isn’t 25th, regardless of what rankings say.

I always kind of get a kick when so many offensive coordinators are evaluated by total yards. Great, you put up 450 yards and turned the ball over four times. I think this is similar. Flacco can make all of the throws and he almost always gives his team an opportunity to win.

Flacco isn’t even the best QB in his own division, let alone an upper echelon QB in the entire league.

That said, he’ll get paid when all this posturing is said and done. The Ravens have had too many deep playoff runs with him at the helm for him not to. He’s not great, but he is better than average and his team has had enough success and consistency to warrant the paypay.